Journalism

The International Federation of Journalists hails as a victory the acquittal of two journalists in East Timor who were facing potential jail time for a story they wrote about the Prime Minister in 2015.

To many Australians he was the honeyed voice behind the ABC Radio PM microphone, the agent of reason in a fevered Twittersphere. But Mark Colvin also carved out a singular career as a foreign correspondent roaming the world's power centres and trouble spots.

For decades Mark Colvin, anchor of ABC Radio's PM program, has been one of the standard bearers of Australian journalism with his insistence on facts, not opinion, crisp writing, correct delivery and thoroughness in all his work. Mark Colvin died today and tonight we bid him farewell.

Former ABC journalist Jonathan Harley remembers how Mark Colvin always taught him to look for new ways of telling a story, and how the old-school journalist learnt and mastered a completely new storytelling medium.

He was the familiar voice and fierce intellect behind the radio microphone who explained the world to Australians every day. But despite reporting the news from across the globe, Mark Colvin didn't dream of being a journalist.